Transcript

The reaching of the cap of 12,998 foreign workers for the CNMI-only transitional non-immigrant worker visa program with more than 11 months still to run in the fiscal year has raised alarm bells in the business community. In a statement the Saipan Chamber of Commerce says its deeply concerned.

"It impacts businesses due to the lack of skilled labour resources to run their operations. We do not have enough labour capacity at this time in the CNMI to keep up with our growing economy. Being a small and isolated island makes this a greater challenge than most people can imagine. "

The Chamber of Commerce says while there are other visa categories for eligible workers in specialised areas, some businesses do not qualify and rely on the non-immigrant worker visas. The Northern Marianas Labour Secretary Edith DeLeon Guerrero concedes the cap will hurt some businesses, as it did when the cap for 2016 was reached in May, five months before the end of the fiscal year.

"It would definitely have a negative impact. We remember the first time when we experienced a cap being reached and some of the businesses actually temporarily shut down their operations because they got caught in the cap situation."

The Labour Secretary says she has exercised her power to grant exemptions to a 30 percent US worker participation rate requirement for specific occupations on specific projects in the construction sector.

"And the reason for that we must understand that because we are experiencing such a tremendous economic growth and so many construction activities ongoing that we lack the numbers to ensure that these projects are not hampered as a result of not having the numbers of skilled workers for the construction industry."

But Edith DeLeon Guerrero says she does not know how many foreign workers currently in the Northern Marianas will now be unable to renew their visas and be forced to leave until their employers can petition for their return. RNZ International Correspondent Mark Rabago says when the 2016 cap was reached in May the results were traumatic for some long-term workers.

"Heartbreaking, a lot of our workers had to go home, they had to stay there and wait for their petitions. Some had to uproot their families, their kids, they had to leave. Some actually left their kids to guardians because they didn't want to bring them home, back to homes in China or the Phillipines."

Among those caught up in this year's visa cap are more than 30 nurses from the Philippines. Commonwealth Healthcare chief executive Esther Muna says she's hopeful they'll be able to find another avenue to keep the nurses, who make up almost half the nursing workforce in the CNMI. But she says if they lose them they will have to cut some services.

"If these nurses are gone the impact is huge. We're not just a hospital, we are actually a healthcare system that's responsible for the health of the entire population. So it's something that will affect the health of the CNMI."

Correspondent Mark Rabago says the non-immigrant worker visa cap is gradually being cut to encourage employers of long-term workers to apply for visas with a more permanent status, and to reduce the US Commonwealth's reliance on foreign workers. The program is due to end in 2019, but the Northern Marianas Governor Ralph Torres and the US Congress delegate Gregorio Kilili Sablan have been asking for it to be extended and the ceiling raised to 18-thousand workers. Mark Rabago says the outcome of the US elections could determine the success of those proposals.

"Clinton, Hillary is pro-immigration, to relax the immigration of the US. If she wins then probably there is a good hope that alien workers here, longterm alien workers who are legal could have some good standing in the future. And it all depends on Congress, if Congress remains Republican, it's going to be an uphill battle."

Mark Rabago says the business community has also been lobbying the US Congress for 35-thousand foreign nationals to be allowed in as more workers are needed for developments such as the building of a new casino.